Black: Heeler mentality is OK with me

“Where?” I asked, thinking I had scratched it in the mesquite or during the night or while I was sleeping someone had tattooed “KICK ME” across my forehead. She reached up and touched me above the left ear. “Oh,” I said, “I had a little hair trim.”

“Rollie got a little close, didn’t he?”

“No, not really. I, uh, trimmed it myself,” I explained.

“So, that explains the lock of black, tan and gray hair I found in the sink,” she said.“Why didn’t you let me do it?”

“I don’t know, I guess I was in a hurry.”

“Pretty good reason,” she said, “Did you close your eyes while you were trimming your hair?’’

“Yes,” I said defensively, “it was just the heeler mentality.”

The heeler mentality is a version of the cowboy mentality where instinct often overwhelms good judgment. It can be compared to the team roping “header” mentality. For instance; a header usually has his hair styled rather than cut; a heeler cuts his own hair and always needs a shave. A header drives a fairly new pickup and trailer with a coordinated paint job; the heeler is still buyin’ recaps and the paint job on his trailer matches the primer on his brother’s BBQ grill. A header usually has two horses, his favorite and one in training; the heeler has one horse, in training and for sale. The header has ulcers; the heeler has a hangover.

I’m left-handed, so I am condemned to roping the heels.

A heeler sees nothing wrong with turning his socks inside out to keep them fresh, storing his dress shirt in his dop kit, and using Scotch tape instead of sewing on a new one on when he loses a button off his cuff.

You can drop your sandwich on the floor, then pick it up and eat it. What’s a few grains of sand.

They think nothing of doing a rectal exam on a cow without a plastic sleeve, getting mud on their new boots and climbing on a bad horse out of obstinance.

But, we can focus intensely on a project when we need to; like comin’ out of the heeler’s box concentrating on the throw.

So, giving myself a trim is not out of character. I can live with it, even though it looks like the barber did it with an electric sander and a weed eater.

Baxter Black is a veterinarian and cowboy poet. His column appears weekly and airs at 6:20 a.m. each Monday on KGNC Talk Radio 710. He can be reached at www.baxterblack.com or 800-654-2550.